FaceBook Spam 101 – What is It and How to Avoid It?

Email spam was bad enough, but now social networks are getting their share. Facebook is getting the brunt of it though. If you see messages like:

“Please do your part in PREVENTING SPAM by VERIFYING YOUR ACCOUNT. Click VERIFY MY ACCOUNT right next to comment below to begin the verification process…”

Facebook Deleting all Profiles at *insert date* which are not verified..soon verify your account before it gets deleted at j.mp/mvLj1l#35255

Check this out facebook now lets us to see who views our profile. Enable it here @ j.mp/jUzajJ

This is the FACEBOOK OFFICIAL PROFILE VIEWERS APP. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS MESSAGE YOU QUALIFY TO SEE WHO VIEWS YOUR PROFILE AT: bit.ly/ePEvr4

Wow, have you seen this picture you were t@gged in yet? :) : bit.ly/fE8NDz

this site is bug right now and sending out iphones 4 100 percent free http://apps.facebook.com/verycoolwowlol/?wdmtlzgf

It is a 99.9% chance that this is spam. Protecting your account in the following steps usually prevents some things.

  1. Enabling HTTPS
    Under Account,  you can enable the HTTPS option on your browsing experience with Facebook. The catch: It does not work when playing the games or other applications on FaceBook.
  2. Disabling Chat
    A lot of the spam comes through FaceBook chat. Allowing users to only send messages will avoid some of the spam. Though making yourself unavailable for chat takes away from networking, it does keep your message.
  3. Don’t Click on Any Links
    Usually some of the spam links are http://goo.gl/ or http://bit.ly or some short-hand URL. Unless you can verify that the user just sent it to you, then do not click on it. Legit sites sometime shorten their links using these free services, so it is a hit-or-miss.
  4. Verify Your Friends
    Definitely check the profiles of people that want to be a friend. Typically spam or bots have little to no mutual friends, or have pictures of themselves tagged with hundreds of people….or even shoes. Also, if you do see yourself tagged in these items, immediately remove the tag
  5. Disable your Wall
    Disabling the wall under Privacy will do a lot to maintain professionalism and cleanliness of your account. It stops a lot of spam as well.

 

If you have tips, definitely leave them in the comments!!

 

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